A new Public Transit Center that will accommodate the end-of-line station for RTD’s East Line—a 23-mile rail transit connection between DIA and Union Station in Downtown Denver—currently under construction and scheduled to open for service in January 2016.

A new 500-room Westin Hotel & Conference Center that will be located immediately south of the existing Jeppeson Terminal and above the Public Transit Center.

A new 60,000 square foot Public Plaza that will connect the Jeppesen terminal with the new hotel.

Gensler is the principal architect of the entire South Terminal Redevelopment program at DIA, with Anderson Mason Dale working on the Public Transit Center. Here are some new renderings of the project, courtesy of my friends at Gensler’s Denver office. You have two options to view the renderings: click on an image to view a larger version of it, or use the link below an image to open a giant-sized version in a new window. Here we go:

View (looking north) at the Public Transit Center and Westin Hotel, with the existing terminal complex beyond:

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View (looking northwest) of the Public Transit Center and Westin Hotel:

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View (looking southeast) of the Public Plaza in between the existing Jeppesen Terminal and the new Westin Hotel:

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View from the train platforms inside the Public Transit Center:

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View of the entry to the hotel from the Public Transit Center:

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View looking southwest from the Public Plaza, with the existing Jeppesen Terminal on the right and the Westin Hotel on the left:

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For a few additional renderings, visit the project’s page on the Gensler website.

Before we begin, I would like to thank Nathan Huyler of RNL, Jason Miller of Mortenson, Tiffany Nation of Mortenson, and Chad Grubl of Metro State for making this tour possible for Ken and me.

First we will start off with the courtyard. This will be a common area outside for both students and hotel guests to meet, socialize, and study. The courtyard also will be used for vehicles to get in and out but will not disturb the function of the outdoor space.

Next we will cover parking. This project has 75 structured parking spaces as you can see below. It’s a very simple system as far as getting in and out. There’s one ‘in’ ramp and one ‘out’ ramp.

The connection between the two classrooms is going to host 7,500 square feet of meeting space. This is almost like a bridge over the courtyard entrance.

They may not look like much now but these are going to be the hotel rooms. The Hotel and Hospitality Learning Center includes 150 guest rooms.

When a guest is staying in the Hotel and Hospitality Learning Center, they are going to get some great views of downtown and campus as well. You can stare at the buildings on one side, or watch a baseball game on the other.

This is the lobby of the hotel which includes a meeting area and guest services where you can check in to your room.

Over to the classrooms. The academic program here is going to offer state-of-the-art food and beverage laboratories, classrooms, and faculty offices. This also includes a kitchen, student lounge, restaurant, and even wine tasting all wrapped around in glass.

Here are a couple bonus shots of the project. On the left is a shot looking at the project form the inside, and on the right from the outside.

Last but not least, thank you once again to the crew (and the hiding ones) that allowed us to tour their project.

As far as materials go for the project, they are going to relate to the existing campus’s low-rise, high-density arrangement and clad in brick. This project is also pursuing LEED Silver.

Coming up in the next few weeks there will be more ‘Inside the Infill’ posts of more projects around such as the Ralph Carr Judicial Complex so stay tuned!

First, the Student Success Building. It appears the structure has topped out.

Workers were very busy today. There was constant activity at the site.

From a little bit of a different angle, you can see how long this building is. This will add a lot to the street-scape on Auraria Parkway.

The Hotel Learning Center was very hard to get to. It was blocked off with tall fences on all sides. I was able to zoom in a little and get this from the top of a parking garage. As you can see, there is a red tower crane up and this project is moving forward at full force.

In this bonus photo, you can see DaVita starting to break through the Lower Downtown / Central Platte Valley skyline.

When I was taking pictures on top of an Auraria parking garage, I looked around and counted 12 cranes. That’s a lot of development going on around the city, which I will be covering. Throughout the next few weeks we will be looking at some of the projects that have been regularly updated on here and also some smaller projects in Downtown’s surrounding neighborhoods that have yet to get an update.

The student success building is making significant progress. This is located at 9th and Auraria Parkway.

They have begun to build the steel skeleton for the building.

The Metro State Student Success Building is going to be a 4-story 145,000 square foot building. It is scheduled to open April 2012. Due to the recent name change of the college, the name of the building may be different upon completion.

Over at the Hotel Learning Center site, it looks like the site is being prepared for construction.

As you can see, there is a red tower crane base at the site.

The Hotel Learning Center will have 150 rooms and over 21,000 square feet of classroom space. It is expected to open September 2012.

The owner/developer is Stonebridge, a Denver-based hospitality development firm, which recently completed the Hilton Garden Inn at 14th and Welton, and the project architect is JG Johnson Architects, which specializes in hospitality design. The plan is to add two floors to the top of the building (set back from the existing roof line), renovate/restore the existing six-story structure, and add a new stairwell and entryway on the building’s southwest side that faces a small surface parking lot. That surface lot is also owned by Stonebridge, so it will be used for a new glass porte-cochère and a few spaces for short-term guest check-in parking. All other parking for the hotel will be provided as a valet service to leased spaces off site. The main pedestrian entrance faces 17th Street and features the bank’s grand metal doors.

Here are a couple of images, courtesy of JG Johnson Architects, showing the proposed addition:

As the first image shows, the shape of the addition is like a square donut, with the hole serving as a light well for rooms that will face the interior. For this reason, a hole will be cut into the center of the top three floors of the existing building so that light can penetrate down through all but the first three floors.

The facade design and materials of the addition have not been finalized, but as these concept images above show, the addition will clearly reflect a contemporary design and feature a contrasting dark color to the historic building’s white facade.

A few other facts about the building: It will have 230 rooms, banquet/meeting rooms in the basement (including one inside the bank’s vault), a ground-floor restaurant and retail space, and a lounge in the mezzanine overlooking the lobby. The hotel is planned to be branded a Marriott Renaissance, a Marriott brand not yet found in Denver but one that often features hotels in historic or converted buildings (thus, the name “renaissance”). Currently, some remediation and interior demolition work is taking place. In May or June, the curb lane of Champa next to the building will be closed down and a crane positioned there to begin actual construction of the addition and major renovation work. If all goes as planned, the hotel will open in Fall 2012.

One other note about this building: it is absolutely beautiful inside and, once finished, in my opinion, it will become one of Denver’s swankiest and hippest hotels. The lobby is spectacular, and features a three-story atrium with classical marble colonnades and 16 large murals by famed artist Allen Tupper True. The murals will be protected during the restoration and will remain as one of the building’s prominent features.

Here are a few photos of the lobby I took several months ago before interior work began. I was using my phone camera and no flash so the quality isn’t the greatest:

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a member of the Downtown Denver Historic District. The project team has already received all of their approvals from the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission and also has its financing in place. So, it’s full steam ahead for the transformation of this historic landmark on 17th Street into a new four-star hotel!

The proposed combination hotel/academic building is planned for the corner of Auraria Parkway and 12th Street where tennis courts are currently located. Here’s the site from Google Earth:

The hotel portion will be branded as a Marriott SpringHill Suites and will contain 150 rooms, a conference facility with a 350-person capacity, and a fast-casual restaurant franchise. The hotel will be managed by Denver’s Sage Hospitality. The academic portion will include over 21,000 square feet of classrooms, laboratories, and faculty offices for Metro State’s Hospitality, Tourism & Events program.

Here are three images of the project, courtesy of RNL Design:

View of the northeastern side. The intersection in the foreground is eastbound Auraria Parkway (wide street in front) and 12th Street (narrow street heading off to the left):

View of the southeastern side facing the athletic fields and Lawrence Street:

Internal courtyard:

If all goes as planned, the facility will open September 2012.

I’ll ask around and see what I can find out as to exactly what is going on. Stay tuned!

UPDATE – Preliminary word is that excavation at DIA is part of what is known as the Safety Area Widening Project. The project will  excavate dirt from the south side of the main terminal and deposit it along taxiways on the south and west side of the airport. However, they may be excavating more than originally planned to make room for the station and hotel project. So not for the hotel and station just yet, but this project is making way for it…

First, a quick history of Denver’s convention centers. The city’s first convention center was the Denver Auditorium at 14th between Curtis and Champa, which opened just in time to host the 1908 Democratic National Convention. That handsome facility today has been incorporated into the Denver Performing Arts Complex and is the home of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Eventually, the Auditorium became insufficient for a city Denver’s size, so in 1964 Denver voters approved a bond issue to build a new convention center. Currigan Hall was completed in 1969 at a cost of $13 million. It covered two full city blocks between Champa and Stout and from 14th to 12th Streets and was connected to the Auditorium with a skybridge. Currigan Hall featured a 100,000 sf exhibit hall on the ground floor, 40,000 sf of exhibit space in the basement, and another 30,000 sf of meeting space in the mezzanine.

By the 1980s, Denver again desired a bigger and better convention center. Finally, in June 1990, Phase 1 of the Colorado Convention Center opened to great fanfare. The new $126 million convention center was 940,000 square feet in total size and featured a 300,000 sf main exhibit hall, 65,000 sf of meeting rooms, and a 35,000 sf ballroom. Phase 1 covered the blocks between Welton and Stout and from 14th Street past 12th Street to almost Speer Boulevard.

As soon as the new Colorado Convention Center opened, city leaders began discussing the need for a convention headquarters hotel, as well as the future Phase 2 expansion of the new center. Planning for the Phase 2 expansion occurred throughout the late 1990s, and in November 1999, Denver voters approved a $310 million bond issue to pay for the center’s expansion. Construction began in January 2001 and opened in December 2004. The expansion added another 300,000 square feet to the main exhibit hall, another 35,000 sf of meeting rooms, an additional 50,000 sf ballroom, a 5,000-seat auditorium, and a 1,000-space parking garage, taking the entire facility up to 2.4 million sf in total size. To accommodate the expansion, Currigan Hall, as well as TerraCenter, an office tower at Speer and Stout, were demolished, and Stout Street and the Light Rail tracks were rerouted to curve through the facility. Here’s an animation I’ve created using GoogleEarth archive images, starting with a black and white 1999 image before construction began, and ending with a 2006 image after the hotel was completed:

Meanwhile, several convention center hotel proposals were advanced by the private sector, but none could get off the ground. Finally, with expansion of the convention center underway, the Webb Administration, fed up with the lack of progress on the hotel project, decided that the city should build the hotel itself. Construction on the new Hyatt Denver Convention Center hotel began in June 2003 and opened in December 2005, one year after the expanded convention center opened. The new hotel covers the entire block bounded by 14th, 15th, Welton, and California, and includes 1,100 rooms in a 37-story tower.

The combination of the expanded convention center and the Hyatt hotel has allowed Denver to stay competitive in the convention-hosting business by keeping the city in the top tier of convention cities and able to host all but the biggest conventions. Together, the Colorado Convention Center and Hyatt Denver Convention Center Hotel projects have spurred substantial private-sector investment in the area and, along with the investments made next door at the Performing Arts Complex, have greatly contributed to the overall revitalization of Downtown Denver.

The historic bank building, built in 1915, is a contributing structure to the Downtown Denver Historic District. Its neoclassical design was intended to convey a sense of respectability and security that one expects from a bank. In fact, when it opened, the bank’s boast was “the bank that looks like a bank”. The original 1915 structure included only the first three floors.  In 1926, an addition matching the original design was added along Champa Street, and then in 1964, an additional three floors were added featuring a design with a modern interpretation of the neoclassical base. On the left is a DenverInfill photo of the building from 2006 and on the right a Bing maps bird’s eye photo (click to embiggen):

For more on the building’s history, please read Shawn’s post over at the Denver History Tours blog.  Shawn also has a follow-up post about the building’s beautiful murals inside. Also check out the building’s page at the Historic Denver website.

The building has sat vacant since 2007, and the building’s Champa Street side near the bus stop is particularly shabby looking.  Anyway, the good news is that Stonebridge is planning on converting the building into a boutique hotel and adding a few floors in the process.  JG Johnson Architects has been given the task of adding a contemporary addition above the 1960s addition which sits above the 1915 original base. That will be an interesting architectural challenge. I have no problem philosophically, however, with adding yet another addition to this building. Buildings, even historic buildings, need to evolve and flex over time to stay relevant and contributing to the vibrancy of the city.

Hopefully this proposal will stay on track and, in a few years, we’ll have a new hotel operating along 17th Street in a repurposed and scrubbed-up and slightly taller historic building that will thrive well into the new century.